This research project seeks to understand the role of leadership within schools in the South
of England and to further understand the characteristic traits and leadership styles that
make a good school leader, along with recommendations to feed into leadership
recruitment and development processes. Using existing literature and research, this project
collates the characteristic traits and leadership styles understood to contribute to a good
leader, to produce a theoretical model. Primary data has been collected from the
researcher’s educational contacts and colleagues to gain further insight into good and
effective leadership traits and styles to better understand the impact this has on a school
and pupil outcomes.
Based on the investigation and findings, a new model has been created that takes the
existing theory on the most effective leadership traits and styles and adds some of the key
findings from this research project with a focus on the softer people skills which seemed to
be more prevalent in the research findings.